Month: December 2021

New York City’s sweeping mandate requiring nearly all private-sector businesses to ban unvaccinated employees from the workplace took effect Monday amid a spike in coronavirus infections, leaving some employers grappling with thorny personnel decisions.

Workers at roughly 184,000 businesses were required to show proof they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Monday. Businesses that do not comply could face fines starting at $1,000, but Mayor Bill de Blasio said imposing penalties will be a last resort. 

The Democratic mayor said during a news conference Monday that mandates have worked to get people vaccinated. 

“We have got to double down because one thing we can all agree on … COVID is bad for humans, it’s bad for our health, but it’s also bad for business. And if we want to avoid shutdowns, and I believe we must, we need more and more people vaccinated,” de Blasio said. 

Christopher Taylor, the co-owner of Li-Lac Chocolates, agreed vaccinations are paramount in combatting the pandemic but said the mandate left him in a difficult situation. 

“It’s a moral quandary. You have obligations to employees, and you have obligations to your customers. How do you know what’s the right answer?” Taylor said. 

His company employs about 70 workers at six retail outlets and a chocolate factory in New York City. He estimated that as many as a quarter of his employees, most of them factory workers, have yet to be vaccinated. 

“We’ve encouraged them, we’ve pushed them, but we don’t like to force them,” Taylor said. 

“My primary obligation is to my employees,” he said. “I just think it’s immoral to fire somebody because of a personal medical choice.” 

Some business owners and workers are planning a legal challenge, said Louis Gelormino, a Staten Island attorney. He said they’ll argue the city is violating the constitutional rights of business owners and workers to make a living, and that New York City has no authority to impose vaccine mandates on private-sector companies, although such requirements already exist for restaurants, bars, theaters, gyms and other indoor gathering places. 

The new rules cover private places where work is performed in the presence of another worker or a member of the public. That includes not only stores, but shared workspaces and taxis, according to the requirements. 

It’s not clear whether Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who takes office Jan. 1, will keep or change the mandate. 

Fueled by the super-contagious omicron variant, new coronavirus cases in the city have rocketed from an average of about 3,400 a day in the week that ended Dec. 12 to 22,000 in the week that ended Sunday. Hospitalizations also have risen, but not as sharply. 

Under the city’s new rules, many more private employers will have to verify and keep a record of each worker’s proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Workers who have received only one shot must get a second within 45 days. Companies must display a sign affirming they’re complying with the rule “in a conspicuous location,” under the city’s mandate. 

Businesses aren’t required to discipline or fire non-compliant workers, but they must keep them out of the workplace. Workers seeking an accommodation on religious grounds can come to work while their request is pending. 

“My hope is that the city goes light on the enforcement of this because it’s a new mandate — it certainly is going to require some transition — and employers are dealing with a myriad of other challenges right now,” said Randy Peers, the president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. 

Kathryn Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City, a business group representing some of the city’s larger employers, said city inspectors might be hard pressed to enforce the edict. She said she hopes the Adams administration will show flexibility on enforcement.

“Larger employers I have heard from — literally dozens and dozens of other major employers – have been concerned about meeting the mandate. The timing was very short,” Wylde said. 

Vaccinations are already required in the city for hospital and nursing home workers and for city employees, including teachers, police officers and firefighters. 

Meanwhile, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that people who test positive should isolate themselves for five days, rather than 10, provided their symptoms are gone and they continue wearing a mask for another five days.

The CDC says evidence is growing that people are most infectious in the two days before and three days after COVID-19 symptoms develop. The agency trimmed its isolation guidance for health care workers from 10 to seven days last week. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, applauded the CDC’s move. On Friday, she had set a five-day isolation period for health care and other essential workers who are fully vaccinated, don’t have symptoms and wear masks at work.

State officials said they were trying to avoid staff shortages in critical jobs while also trying to halt the virus’ spread. 

“This is not about sending people back to work who are sick,” state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said at a news briefing Monday. “People who are sick, at all times, should not be at work, and in these times in particular.” 
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The United States and Russia will hold talks in January about nuclear arms control and tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border. 

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told reporters the two sides would meet January 10, followed by Russia-NATO talks on January 12 and a meeting on January 13 with Russia, the United States and other members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 

“When we sit down to talk, Russia can put its concerns on the table, and we will put our concerns on the table with Russia’s activities as well,” the spokesperson said.”There will be areas where we can make progress, and areas where we will disagree. That’s what diplomacy is about.” 

Western governments have been alarmed by the buildup of Russian troops along the border with Ukraine, expressing concern about potential plans for a Russian invasion.Russian leader Vladimir Putin has denied any such plans and has demanded guarantees against NATO expansion close to its territory. 

The National Security Council spokesperson said in respect to Ukraine’s own interests, the U.S.-Russia talks will not reach any decisions about Ukraine. 

“President Biden’s approach on Ukraine has been clear and consistent: unite the alliance behind two tracks — deterrence and diplomacy. We are unified as an alliance on the consequences Russia would face if it moves on Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. 

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters 
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The United States is one of several Western democracies that independent rights groups say has seen an erosion of democratic institutions in recent years. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine spoke with democracy experts about what they say is causing a slide in global democratic freedoms and how to reverse it.
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More than 20 sailors on a U.S. Navy warship — roughly 25% of the crew — have now tested positive for COVID-19, keeping the ship sidelined Monday in port at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to U.S. defense officials. 

The USS Milwaukee has a crew of a bit more than 100, and it was forced to pause its deployment late last week because of the coronavirus outbreak. The defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the outbreak, said the number of infected sailors is staying relatively constant at this point. 

The USS Milwaukee, a relatively small, stealthy combat ship, is the first Navy ship this year to have to interrupt its deployment at sea. 

It began its deployment from Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida, on December 14, and had stopped for a scheduled port visit. The ship was heading into the U.S. Southern Command region.

Another warship, meanwhile, had to postpone its movement out to sea earlier this month due to a separate outbreak. Navy Commander Sean Robertson, spokesperson for the 3rd Fleet, said the USS Halsey, a destroyer, delayed its homeport move from Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, to San Diego because a significant number of the crew became infected with COVID-19. The ship was finally able to leave Hawaii on Sunday. The move is not a deployment, but a transfer to a new home station for the crew. 

A Navy official said roughly one-third of the Halsey crew tested positive for the virus, and most had only mild symptoms or none at all. A destroyer has about 300 crew members. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details on the crew impact. 

Robertson said the crew was nearly 100% vaccinated and no one was taken to the hospital. Vaccine booster shots were made available for the crew. Robertson also said some of the samples have been tested and all were the omicron variant. 

The Navy said in a statement Friday that the crew of the USS Milwaukee was “100% immunized” and that all those who tested positive for COVID-19 were being isolated on the ship away from other crew members.

The U.S. officials said Monday that the Navy believes the total vaccination of the crew is the key factor in controlling the outbreak. 

According to the Navy’s statement, “a portion” of those infected are having mild symptoms, and the specific variant is not yet known. COVID-19 cases have surged across the country as a result of the highly contagious omicron variant. 

Other Navy ships were sidelined during the early months of the virus outbreak last year. 

The first major military outbreak of the virus happened early last year on a Navy warship, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier that was operating in the Pacific. The Roosevelt was sidelined in Guam for nearly two months, and more than 1,000 of the 4,800 crew members tested positive. One sailor died, and the entire crew went through weeks of quarantine in a rotation that kept enough sailors on the ship to keep it safe and running. 

According to the latest data released by the Navy, more than 98% of all active-duty sailors have been fully vaccinated. 

 
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For U.S. social media companies, the violent mob storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6 last year spurred action. They shut down then-President Donald Trump’s accounts. One year later, are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube any better prepared to face similar situations in the U.S. or in other countries? Michelle Quinn reports.

Camera: Deana Mitchell Produced by: Matt Dibble
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Holiday travelers continued to experience widespread flight cancellations as the omicron variant causes airline staff to call in sick.

According to FlightAware, which tracks delays and cancellations, there have been 2,395 total flight cancellations around the world Monday with 869 of those impacting flights “within, into, or out of the United States.” 

Some 6,342 flights have been delayed around the world with 1,602 delays impacting U.S flights. 

Over the Christmas weekend, thousands more flights were canceled, leaving travelers stranded. 

“We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans,” Delta said in a statement. “Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight.” 

The holiday season is the busiest time of year for air travel. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said 2.19 million passengers were screened on Dec. 23, and the previous day saw more travelers than the same day in 2019. 

When things might return to normal is unclear. 

Delta and JetBlue have reportedly asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce quarantine times for their vaccinated employees. Some airlines are also reportedly offering bonuses to work more to cover for sick employees. 

Amid the scramble, some are expressing concern. 

“We’ve got to make sure employees don’t feel pressured to come to work when they’ve been exposed to COVID or they think they may have the symptoms,” Captain Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, told ABC News. 
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As a presidential candidate last year, Joe Biden slammed the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies and pledged to enact comprehensive reform that would reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees. As Biden’s first year in the White House ends, his record on immigration demonstrates as much continuity as change.

In perhaps his most visible departure from the previous administration, President Biden ordered a halt to wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border shortly after taking office.

But much of the immigration policy architecture of the Trump years endures. The Biden administration has retained Title 42, a pandemic-related policy mandating the rapid expulsion of migrants as a public health precaution, even as America opened its land borders to Mexico and Canada. And a federal court order forced reinstatement of the former administration’s policy that kept asylum seekers on the Mexican side of the border while awaiting U.S. immigration court dates, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).  

Immigrant advocates say Biden has added some humanity to America’s immigration system but credit him with little else.

“We asked this administration to [end] MPP, Title 42, to release children and families in detention and to start changing not only the narrative but to have a more proactive strategy to rebuild the asylum process at the border,” Fernando Garcia, director of the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso, Texas, told VOA. “But in practice, we can still see some of the kind of legacy of Trump at the border. That has not changed and we’re disappointed that that is still happening.”

US-Mexico border and asylum seekers

In addition to ending border wall construction—former President Donald Trump’s signature project—Biden did, in fact, order MPP halted soon after his January inauguration.  

Texas, a Republican-led U.S. state bordering Mexico, sued the Biden administration to keep the policy in place. In August, a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration had improperly ended the policy and ordered it reinstated.

“I fought to protect our southern border and won,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement at the time. “I will not allow the safety of Texas residents to be left to the mercy of a reckless president.”

While appealing the ruling, the Biden administration reimplemented the policy on December 6, after Mexico agreed to receive returned migrants.

While the White House has sought to end MPP, the same cannot be said of Title 42, which the Biden administration opted to retain from the start.

Since March 20, 2020, hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking to apply for asylum in the United States have been expelled to their home countries. Implemented and enforced as a blanket policy by the Trump administration, Title 42 has been modified under Biden to allow for humanitarian exemptions such as unaccompanied minors and families with young children.

Migration Policy Institute analyst Jessica Bolter said retaining the policy has had “the largest effect on people arriving at the border.” She added, “Of course, we now also have MPP added to that mix.”

Refugees

During Trump’s four years in office, the annual ceiling for U.S. refugee admissions was slashed from 85,000 to 15,000.  

Biden initially kept the refugee cap at 15,000, the lowest in modern U.S. history, prompting outcries from Democratic allies on Capitol Hill. In May, the administration reversed course and raised the ceiling to 62,500. (U.S. refugee admissions totaled just 11,411 for the 2021 fiscal year, which ended September 30.)

The administration has since raised the 2022 refugee cap to 125,000. Yet actual admissions continue to lag and the White House has admitted that the “goal [of 125,000 admissions] will be hard to hit” despite Biden’s determination to “rebuild” the program and renew “America’s commitment to protect the most vulnerable, and to stand as a beacon of liberty and refuge to the world.”  

Enforcement priorities

While record-setting migration to the U.S.-Mexico border has gotten the most attention during Biden’s first year in office, researchers say little has changed in the way of federal border enforcement.

According to Bolter, the “really dramatic changes” are seen in interior enforcement and how the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) has reprioritized arrests to focus on undocumented immigrants who pose a threat to national security or public safety. During the Trump administration, any immigrant living in the U.S. without authorization could be subject to arrest and removal.

“These are changes that are affecting how the immigrant population in the U.S. lives their day-to-day life,” Bolter said. “The Biden administration has put into place new ICE enforcement priorities that narrow the population who are targeted for arrest or removal. This makes the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants who are living in the U.S. deprioritized for enforcement.”

The Biden administration has also acted to prevent ICE from making arrests at courthouses and limited the detention of pregnant women.

“And probably one of the most significant steps that they’ve taken in the enforcement arena is ending mass worksite enforcement operations,” Bolter added.

Legal immigration

After more than a year of closures, U.S. embassies and consulates around the world have reopened for immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments. Yet, due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, such services remain limited.  

In November, the State Department announced that more than 460,000 people are awaiting interviews, adding to an extensive backlog of those seeking to apply for U.S. legal residency and other categories.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for America’s naturalization system, has made changes under Biden.

The agency replaced the word “alien”—seen by some as pejorative—with “noncitizen” or “undocumented noncitizen” in its publications and pledged to make immigration forms “more accurate, timely, and easier to understand.”  

Immigration legislation stalled

On his first day in office, President Biden unveiled sweeping immigration reform legislation, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which included an 8-year path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

The bill has yet to be voted on by either the House or Senate and is viewed as all but dead on Capitol Hill.

Separately, Senate Democrats have repeatedly sought to add immigration reform elements to a massive social safety net spending bill. In each instance, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that immigration measures do not belong in spending bills that can pass the chamber with a simple majority vote.

As a result, immigration reform legislation will need three-fifth majority backing to advance in the 100-member Senate where Democratic caucus has only 50 members and Republicans are united in opposition to Democrats’ reform proposals.

Given that Democrats control both elected branches of the U.S. government, Washington’s inability to reform America’s oft-criticized immigration system is a bitter pill for advocates.

“Our hope, our demand and our expectation were that this new administration was bringing a new air in regard to immigrants and immigration policy with a more humane approach to immigration, and we did believe that,” Garcia, from Border Network for Human Rights, told VOA.

While immigration advocates are disappointed the Biden administration has not done more to turn from Trump policies, Republicans blame the president for a protracted migrant surge at the border, saying his messaging led people in Central America and elsewhere to believe U.S. borders were open to newcomers.
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U.S. authorities on Sunday were monitoring dozens of cruise ships hit by COVID-19 cases while sailing in the country’s waters, with several of them reportedly denied port in the Caribbean.

Over 60 vessels were under observation after “reported cases of COVID-19 have met the threshold for CDC investigation,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. 

The Washington Post reported that several cruise liners were denied port at their scheduled destinations.

One of them, the Carnival Freedom, was turned away from the Caribbean island of Bonaire, the Post reported.

“We’re sailing on a petri dish,” said Ashley Peterson, a 34-year-old passenger on board, cited by the Post. “I feel like I just spent my past week at a superspreader event.”

In a statement to AFP, Carnival confirmed that “a small number on board were isolated due to a positive COVID test.”

“The rapid spread of the omicron variant may shape how some destination authorities with limited medical resources may view even a small number of cases, even when they are being managed with our vigorous protocols,” the company said, without providing further details. 

The Carnival Freedom arrived in Miami Sunday morning, debarked all guests and “will depart on its next voyage as planned,” the company said, adding if it was denied entry to a certain port it would work “to find an alternative destination.”

It added the CDC was “fully informed and supportive of our protocols and operational plans.”

Earlier this week, 55 people tested positive for COVID-19 aboard a Royal Caribbean International cruise, the company said.

The infections spread among passengers and crew members on the “Odyssey of the Seas” despite 95% of the people on board being vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to Royal Caribbean.

The ship did not dock at the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba, the last scheduled stops on its eight-day voyage out of precaution.

It returned to port at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday.
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Sarah Weddington, a Texas lawyer who as a 26-year-old successfully argued the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court, died Sunday. She was 76. 

Susan Hays, Weddington’s former student and colleague, said she died in her sleep early Sunday morning at her Austin home. Weddington had been in poor health for some time and it was not immediately clear what caused her death, Hays told The Associated Press. 

Raised as a minister’s daughter in the West Texas city of Abilene, Weddington attended law school at the University of Texas. A couple years after graduating, she and a former classmate, Linda Coffee, brought a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman challenging a state law that largely banned abortions. 

The case of “Jane Roe,” whose real name was Norma McCorvey, was brought against Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade and eventually advanced to the Supreme Court.  

Weddington argued the case before the high court twice, in December 1971 and again in October 1972, resulting the next year in the 7-2 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. 

Weddington’s death comes as the Supreme Court is considering a case over Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy that’s widely considered to be most serious challenge in years to the Roe decision.  

While that case was before the court, Weddington also ran to represent Austin in the Texas House of Representatives. She was elected in 1972 and served three terms as a state lawmaker, before becoming general counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and later working as advisor on women’s issues to President Jimmy Carter.  

Weddington later wrote a book on Roe v. Wade, gave lectures and taught courses at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas Women’s University on leadership, law and gender discrimination. She remained active in the political and legal worlds well into her later years, attending the 2019 signing ceremony for a New York state law meant to safeguard abortion rights should Roe v. Wade be overturned. 
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The hit new “Spider-Man” became the first billion-dollar-grossing film of the pandemic era over the Christmas weekend, reaching the milestone while holding firmly to the North American box office top spot, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” British star Tom Holland’s third solo outing in the wildly popular role, has grossed $467.3 million in North America and $587 million internationally, raking in more than $1 billion over 12 days and proving analysts’ predictions that it could reach the milestone sum. 

It rocketed to that benchmark at a speed only matched by 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” according to industry outlet Variety, and comes even as the rapid spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant casts a pall over holiday outings worldwide.

Sony’s latest installment to the comic-inspired series took an estimated $81.5 million in North America for the three-day period over the Christmas weekend, holding its top spot after scoring the third-biggest domestic opening of all time with more than $260 million, smashing early estimates. 

Its debut box office sales trailed only 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” ($357 million) and the previous year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” ($258 million), according to the BoxOfficeMojo website.

With an estimated $23.8 million, “Sing 2,” Universal’s star-studded animated jukebox musical follow-up to “Sing,” was this weekend’s runner-up.

It beat out two other new series installments: “The Matrix Resurrections” from Warner Bros, which sees Keanu Reeves reprise his iconic role as Neo, underperformed at $12 million.

In fourth place, also earning less than expected, was 20th Century’s spy prequel to the “Kingsman” films, “The King’s Man,” with $6.4 million. 

Lionsgate’s “American Underdog” — based on the true story of Kurt Warner, who went from stocking shelves at a grocery store to National Football League MVP — slid in at number five on its opening weekend with an estimated $6.2 million. 

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“West Side Story” ($2.8 million)

“Licorice Pizza” ($2.3 million)

“A Journal for Jordan” ($2.2 million)

“Encanto” ($2 million)

“83” ($1.8 million)
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With omicron cases on the rise, New York health officials have reported an increase in hospitalized children, as the White House promised Sunday to quickly resolve the United States’ COVID-19 test shortage.

The New York State Department of Health warned “of an upward trend in pediatric hospitalizations associated with COVID-19,” in a statement Friday.

In New York City, it “identified four-fold increases in COVID-19 hospital admissions for children 18 and under beginning the week of December 5 through the current week,” it said.

Approximately half of the admissions are younger than five, an age group that is vaccine ineligible, the department added.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States is on the rise, with an average of nearly 190,000 new infections daily over the past seven days, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The arrival of the new omicron variant, compounded by holiday celebrations that typically include travel and family reunions, have caused a rush on tests in the United States, where it is difficult to get one in many locations.

Top U.S. pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci on Sunday acknowledged a COVID-19 “testing problem” and vowed to make more tests available to Americans next month.

“One of the problems is that that’s not going to be totally available to everyone until we get to January and there are still some issues now of people having trouble getting tested,” Fauci told ABC News.

“But we’re addressing the testing problem,” he added, saying it should be corrected “very soon.”

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced a raft of new measures as the United States battles its latest COVID-19 surge, including shipping half a billion free home tests in the wake of the Christmastime testing crunch.

However, the White House, whose strategy has for weeks been mainly focused on vaccinations, has faced strong criticism over the fact that many tests won’t be available until January.

Fauci on Sunday emphasized that the administration was ramping up to tackle the spike and stressed that omicron was “extraordinarily contagious.” 

Apart from overwhelming hospitals and COVID-19 testing sites, the COVID-19 variant has forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the United States, as crews called in sick or had to quarantine after exposure to the virus. 

Recent studies in South Africa and Britain indicate that omicron was less likely to lead to hospitalization than the previous strains of the virus and that the duration of hospital stays and oxygen needs for patients were lower, Fauci noted.

But he also warned that omicron’s apparent lower severity is likely to be neutralized by how fast it is spreading.

“The issue that we don’t want to get complacent about… is that when you have such a high volume of new infections, it might override a real diminution in severity,” Fauci said.
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Surging coronavirus cases across the world are threatening health care systems in countries seeing a significant spread. The newest variant, omicron, led to thousands of flight cancelations ahead of the Christmas holiday. U.S. President Joe Biden last week announced plans to send one thousand service members to support U.S. hospital staff, and plans to stockpile masks and gowns. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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U.S. airlines called off hundreds of flights for a third day in a row on Sunday as surging COVID-19 infections due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant grounded crews and forced tens of thousands of Christmas weekend travelers to change their plans. 

Commercial airlines canceled 656 flights within, into or out of the United States on Sunday, slightly down from nearly 1,000 from Christmas Day and nearly 700 on Christmas Eve, according to a tally on flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. 

Further cancellations were likely, and more than 920 flights were delayed. 

The Christmas holidays are typically a peak time for air travel, but the rapid spread of the Omicron variant has led to a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights with pilots and crew needing to be quarantined. 

Delta Air Lines Inc expected more than 300 of its flights to be canceled on Sunday. 

“Winter weather in portions of the U.S. and the Omicron variant continued to impact Delta’s holiday weekend flight schedule,” a Delta spokesperson said in an emailed statement, adding that the company was working to “reroute and substitute aircraft and crews to get customers where they need to be as quickly and safely as possible.” 

When that was not possible, it was coordinating with impacted customers on the next available flight, the spokesperson said. 

Globally, FlightAware data showed that nearly 2,150 flights were called off on Sunday and another 5,798 were delayed, as of 9.40 a.m. EST (1440 GMT). 

Omicron was first detected in November and now accounts for nearly three-quarters of U.S. cases and as many as 90% in some areas, such as the Eastern Seaboard. The average number of new U.S. coronavirus cases has risen 45% to 179,000 per day over the past week, according to a Reuters tally. 

While recent research suggests Omicron produces milder illness and a lower rate of hospitalizations than previous variants of COVID-19, health officials have maintained a cautious note about the outlook.
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2021 was a historic year for all-things space … from the success of private spaceflight companies to robots exploring Mars in a road trip for the ages. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi beams us through the Year in Space.
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The results of the 2020 election did not just usher in a new era of governance in Washington, it also focused renewed attention on how Americans vote. From voter suppression to voter fraud, 2021 was a year when the democratic process was up for debate. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more on how American politics changed this year.

Produced by: Katherine Gypson
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Parts of California are getting a White Christmas after all, with snowfall pounding mountains across the state.

Other areas of California, however, saw a wet and rainy Christmas as storms continue to drench the state, causing flash flooding and evacuations in some areas over the holiday period.

A 113-kilometer stretch of interstate highway over the top of the Sierra Nevada was closed Saturday when a storm that dropped nearly 60 centimeters of snow on some ski resorts around Lake Tahoe overnight got a second wind.

Interstate 80, which connects Reno, Nevada, to Sacramento, California, over the Sierra, was closed in both directions because of poor visibility from the Nevada-California state line to Colfax, California.

“The worst part of the storm is here, so expect long delays,” the California Highway Patrol in Truckee tweeted Saturday afternoon.

Friday night into Saturday, 50 centimeters of snow fell at Homewood on Tahoe’s west shore. About 30 centimeters was reported at Northstar near Truckee, California, and 25 centimeters at the Mount Rose ski resort on the southwest edge of Reno.

At Donner Pass in the Sierra, which is along the closed interstate, officials with the University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory speculated on Twitter if the recent snowfall would break the snowiest December record of 4.6 meters set in 1970.

There’s been at least 3 meters recorded so far this month, according to The Mercury News, with more expected in the next 72 hours.

The snowpack in the Sierra was at dangerously low levels after recent weeks of dry weather, but the state Department of Water Resources reported on Christmas Eve that the snowpack was between 114% and 137% of normal across the range with more snow expected.

The Los Angeles area is likely to see rain and mountain snow for the next week, according to the National Weather Service, with temperatures significantly below normal through the middle of the week.

The San Diego region should see scattered showers, with heavy snow in the San Bernardino and Riverside County mountains, with precipitation possibly going into Thursday.

The storms across the West, which could drop rain and snow over much of the region into next week and plunge the Pacific Northwest into a lengthy cold snap, an atmospheric river that delivered copious amounts of precipitation earlier this week.

The National Weather Service says the Seattle-Tacoma area is likely to see up to 7.6 centimeters of snow over the weekend. By early next week, the Seattle area will dip as low as -7.7 degrees Celsius, the lowest in several years. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, will drop to -20 C by Wednesday, and Portland will drop to the low 20s and high teens.

Rain and snow records broke in Nevada and state officials in Oregon declared an emergency ahead of the freezing temperatures, snow and ice.

Recent forecasts show at least an inch of snow is likely to fall Sunday in the Seattle and Portland regions, which don’t typically see snow.

But forecasters and state officials say the main concern is cold temperatures in the region, with daytime highs next week struggling to reach above freezing, that are likely to affect people experiencing homelessness and those without adequate access to heating.

In Arizona, a winter weather advisory remained in effect Saturday through the weekend in the upper elevations of the mountains north of the Grand Canyon near the Colorado line. But the wet weather that dumped record-breaking rain on Phoenix and Flagstaff on Friday was moving out of the area.

The 4.2 centimeters of rain that fell at the airport in Flagstaff on Friday shattered the old record of 2.2 centimeters set in 2019. The 2.5 centimeters that was recorded in Phoenix on Friday broke the old record of 2.4 centimeters in 1944.

It also was the wettest day for the city since February 22, 2020, when just more than 2.5 centimeters fell. 
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Three members of the K-pop superstar group BTS have tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from abroad, their management agency said.

RM and Jin were diagnosed with COVID-19 on Saturday evening, the Big Hit Music agency said in a statement. It earlier said another member, Suga, tested positive for the virus on Friday.

All three received their second shots in August, the agency said.

BTS is a seven-member boy band. The four other members are J-Hope, Jungkook, V and Jimin.

According to the agency, RM has exhibited no particular symptoms, while Jin is showing mild symptoms including light fever and is undergoing self-treatment at home. The agency said Friday that Suga wasn’t exhibiting symptoms and was administering self-care at home in accordance with the guidelines of the health authorities.

RM had tested negative after returning from the United States earlier this month following his personal schedule there. But he was later diagnosed with the virus ahead of his scheduled release from self-quarantine, the agency said.

After returning to South Korea this month, Jin underwent PCR tests twice — upon arrival and later before his release from self-quarantine — and tested negative both times. But he had flulike symptoms on Saturday afternoon before he took another PCR test that came back positive, the agency said. Media reports said he also had traveled to the U.S.

Suga, who has had a number of personal engagements in the United States during the band’s official time off, was diagnosed with COVID-19 during quarantine after returning from the U.S., the agency said.

The agency said it will continue to provide support for the three members for their speedy recovery. It said it will cooperate with the requests and guidelines of the South Korean health authorities.

Since their debut in 2013, BTS has garnered global recognition for their self-produced music and activism, which includes giving a speech at the United Nations and publicly calling out anti-Asian racism.

BTS was named artist of the year and favorite pop duo or group, and also won the favorite pop song award for Butter at the American Music Awards in November. In October, the group’s collaboration with British rock band Coldplay, My Universe, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was BTS’ sixth Hot 100 No. 1. 
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